Aftermath
by thisiswhereIkeepmyfics
Summary: Oneshot based on the Spring trailer. Can Rita pick up the pieces after seeing Mark again?
I've seen a few fics pop up that are based on the Rita scenes in the Spring trailer and they gave me the idea for this. It's a sort of 'what happens next' after Mark leaves again. This is the first time I've ever written Iain (and I'm not really a fan of his), so I apologise now if his characterisation isn't quite right.

This contains talk of rape, there's nothing graphic or descriptive but please don't read if you think it may be triggering for you.

* * *

Zoe closed her eyes and inhaled deeply on the cigarette she'd just lit, she was almost six hours into her shift and this was the first time she'd had to grab a few minutes break. She walked around the side of the building hoping that she'd be shielded from the cool breeze that blew across the front of the building.

She frowned slightly as she took another drag on her cigarette, Rita was sat on a bench, her head bowed and, if Zoe wasn't mistaken, she was crying. Zoe quickly took another few drags on her cigarette before stubbing it out against the wall and making her way over to Rita, not wanting to force the nurse to breathe in her smoke.

"Hey" she said as she approached Rita, "anyone sitting here?" She asked even though it was obvious Rita was alone. Rita shook her head, not daring to speak for fear she'd burst into tears again. "Have you been out here long?" Zoe asked, smoothing out the fabric of her dress before sitting on the bench beside Rita, frowning as, once again, she simply got a shake of the head in response. "Rita" Zoe said softly, putting her hand on Rita's arm, "are you okay?" Rita finally looked up at Zoe, unshed tears shining in her eyes, "Rita?" Zoe frowned, "what's wrong?" Rita said nothing but simply collapsed into Zoe's open arms as once again tears began rolling freely down her cheeks.

Rita clung to Zoe until she managed to control her tears, she broke away from the hug to reach into her pocket and show Zoe exactly why she was so upset, "I take it this wasn't planned?" Zoe asked softly as she glanced down at the positive pregnancy test Rita had handed her. Rita shook her head, "have you spoken to Iain about…"

"It might not be his" Rita whispered, another tear rolling down her cheek. Zoe frowned slightly but didn't say anything, she could hardly judge Rita for being unfaithful, "when Mark was here…" Rita almost choked on his name, "he, he made me… I didn't, I tried to stop him Zoe, I, I told him no, but he, he was too strong and…" she shook her head, tears once again falling from her eyes.

"Hey, shh, you're okay Rita, you're okay" Zoe wrapped her arms around the nurse and held her tightly, everyone had noticed a change in her since she'd seen Mark, she'd been quieter, preferring to go straight home after her shift instead of joining her friends in the pub but everyone assumed she was just a bit shaken up by seeing her ex-husband again, no one had suspected anything like this.

"You and Iain" Zoe asked once Rita had calmed slightly, "are you, are you safe?" She asked cautiously.

"I'm on the pill" Rita whispered.

"And around the time when...were you and he intimate?"

Rita nodded, "the night before" she frowned slightly as she thought back, "and that morning."

"I know you'll be thinking the worst but statistically it's already more likely than not to be Iain's" Zoe tried to reassure her, "and that's assuming that you conceived on that day. I can only imagine how hard this is for you Rita but I really think you need to talk to Iain."

"I can't" Rita mumbled, still wrapped in Zoe's arms, "I haven't...I've barely spoken to him since…"

"He'll understand" Zoe said softly, "you weren't...you didn't choose to be unfaithful Rita, no matter what you might think this isn't your fault and Iain will understand that." Zoe was silent for a minute, "do you want me to be there when you tell him?" Rita said nothing, "you need to tell him Rita."

"I know" she whispered, "but I don't think I can."

"Just be honest with him, there's nothing else you can do. I know you're scared and imagining the worst but Iain's not Mark Rita, he might be upset but he'll probably just be worried about you, he won't get angry, he won't hurt you."

"I never thought Mark would hurt me" Rita whispered and Zoe felt her heart break.

"If you want me to be there when you tell me then I'll be there, or you can ring me any time Rita, you're not on your own, not any more. Promise me, promise me you'll call me if you need anything."

"I will" Rita nodded, "thank you."

"Does anyone else know?"

Rita shook her head, "I called Dixie the day… but it went to voicemail, she called back but she was so happy that I couldn't...she'd probably have dropped everything and come back, I couldn't make her do that, I didn't want to worry her so I told her I'd just called to see how she was doing."

They sat in silence for a while, Zoe still holding Rita close, before Zoe spoke again, "have you thought about what you're going to do?"

"It's all I've thought about since I realised I might be pregnant" she admitted, "if there was no doubt about it being Iain's then it would be different but… I don't know" she shrugged, "I just want to wake up and find this has all been some horrible nightmare but that's never going to happen."

"Why don't you take the rest of the shift off?" Zoe suggested, "you've not got long left and you're not really in any fit state to be working. I'll sort it with Connie and Charlie."

Rita nodded, "It's Iain's day off."

"Why don't you go and see him?" Zoe suggested, "talk everything through with him and get it out of the way? I think you'll be surprised" she said softly, "it probably won't be as bad as you're imagining."

"And I can call you?"

"Of course, I might not answer straight away if I'm busy with a patient but as soon as I can I'll call you back. I'll tell Connie and Charlie you've been vomiting so I sent you home as a precaution, then you can either tell them it was a 24 hour thing or it was food poisoning or something."

Rita nodded, "I have been sick a couple of times" she admitted.

"There we are then, it's not even a lie" Zoe smiled as she handed Rita the pregnancy test back before giving her a hug, "whatever happens you're not on your own yeah."

Rita nodded again, "thank you"

"Any time, now go and get your things and get off" Zoe said, walking back towards the department with Rita, "and let me know how you get on."

Rita knocked on Iain's door less than half an hour later, "I'm pregnant" she said as soon as he opened the door, not even giving him chance to say hello.

Iain frowned, "do you want to come in?" Rita nodded and stepped into the hallway, slipping off her shoes and jacket, "go through" Iain gestured to his living room, "I'll make us a brew then we can talk yeah?" Rita nodded and made her way into the living room and began pacing nervously as she waited for Iain to return, she wanted to leave, to run and never come back but she new she couldn't, there was a chance the baby she was carrying was Iain's, he deserved to know the truth, "here we are, a nice… Rita?" He'd expected to find her sat on the sofa or curled up in the armchair, but instead she was biting her fingernails as she paced backwards and forwards in the room, "are you okay?"

She looked up at him and he noticed her eyes were full of tears but she spoke before he had time to say anything, "I need to tell you something, and I, you're probably going to hate me, that's fine, I get that and I'll understand if you don't want anything to do with me any more, I erm, I'm pregnant" she repeated, "but I can't be certain that it's yours."

Iain sat heavily on the sofa, "you, you've slept with someone else?" He asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Not…" Rita took a deep breath as she thought about how to explain, "I didn't want to."

Iain frowned, "you were…" Rita nodded, "Who…" he didn't need her to answer, "Mark?"

She nodded again, "I'm sorry, I should have tried harder to…"

"Hey, no" Iain was by her side in seconds when he saw her first tear fall. Rita braced herself, expecting him to grab her or hit her but instead Iain wrapped his arms around Rita and pulled her into him, "you're not to blame" he told her, "oh God Rita, please don't blame yourself" he said, gently kissing her hair. It was then that Rita broke down, her whole body shaking as she sobbed into Iain's chest, his strong arms holding her in his safe embrace as he almost carried her over to the armchair, pulling her to sit on his lap as he felt her legs buckle, unable to support herself any longer.

She nuzzled against the thin cotton of his t shirt, unable to believe she'd been so stupid, she'd pushed him away, been too disgusted with herself to face him, she'd tried to distance herself from him when in reality he was the only person she needed.

Iain held Rita as she sobbed, he gently rubbed her back and occasionally dropped kisses onto her hair as he rocked her slowly and reassured her that it was going to be okay. He didn't try and calm her down, he knew she'd been bottling this away for far too long and it was time she let it out. "Can I get you some water or anything?" Iain asked once Rita's sobs seemed to be calming down, his tshirt soaked with her tears.

Rita shook her head, still leaning it against his chest, "no thank you, do you want me to leave?"

"No" Iain said simply, "not unless you want to leave."

"I don't know what to do" Rita whispered, "I'll understand if you want me to get rid of it."

Iain shrugged, "I'm not going to force you to have an abortion" he said softly, "if that's what you want to do then I'll completely understand but if you want to keep it then we'll have a baby" he said simply.

"But what if…"

"It won't be his Rita" Iain told her, tucking her hair back from her face and wiping her tears with his thumbs, "if you keep it then it'll be ours, it will be our baby and we'll be it's parents."

"I don't…"

"I love you Rita, and if you have this baby then I'll love him or her too, I get that there's a chance that, biologically, it might not be mine, and I know you'll worry about that but I won't" he said honestly, "if you choose to have this baby I'll be there every step of the way, for you and for the kid, I'll hold your hair back when you're sick, I'll go out in the middle of the night to get whatever you're craving. It'll be my name on the birth certificate and I'll be the one that gets up in the night to change dirty nappies so you can sleep. I'm not going to demand a DNA test or walk away telling you it's not my problem, if you're doing this you're doing it with me by your side" he told her before continuing, "but I'll understand completely if that doubt, that worry will be too much for you. If you want to have an abortion then I'll come with you, hold your hand, whatever you want me to do, and then, in the future, when you're ready, when the timing's better, we can try again."

"You, you want to have a baby with me?"

"No, I want to have a family with you" Iain told her, "I wouldn't just want to be a weekend Dad, I'd want us to move in together, so I can be there for you whenever you need me, I wouldn't be able to sleep here, wondering if you're at your place struggling to get the baby to sleep or whatever."

"You'd be okay with it?" Rita whispered, "raising a child that might be…"

"Yeah because in my eyes it wouldn't be his child, if we do this I'll tell everyone you're having my baby because to me that's what it would be."

"And you don't think it's too soon? We've not been together long."

"We've been together long enough for me to fall in love with you" he said honestly, "yes a baby's a big step and in ideal circumstances we'd have planned it a bit more but it's happened now so, if it's what you want to do I'd be more than happy to raise a child with you."

"You're not angry, about, about what happened with Mark?"

Iain took a deep breath, even the thought of that monster being in the same room with Rita made his blood boil, "I'm furious" he said honestly, "if I ever set eyes on him again I'll snap his neck but I'm not angry with you, I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't feel like you could come to me but I understand how hard it must have been."

"I tried" Rita whispered, "I tried to fight him off, I kept telling him, begging him to stop but he, he wouldn't"

Iain closed his eyes and took a shaky breath, trying to hold himself together, trying to stop himself from storming out of the house to find the bastard who thought he could break Rita. "It's not your fault" he told her as she curled into him again, "if he…" the word made him want to be sick, "if he took advantage after you told him no, then it's not your fault Rita."

"I should have fought harder, screamed louder…"

"He should have listened when you said no." Iain interrupted. "What he did was wrong, you were scared, he's a lot bigger than you Rita, no matter what you think you should have or could have done, it still doesn't change the fact that Mark was in the wrong, not you."

"I love you" Rita whispered.

"I love you too" Iain said softly before kissing the top of Rita's hair. "Did you go to the police?" he asked.

She shook her head, "I don't want to, I just want to try and put it behind me and move on."

"Okay" Iain nodded, not wanting to force her into anything, "I think we should get you checked out though, just to be safe, we can go somewhere other than the hospital if you'd prefer."

Rita nodded, "but not today."

"Okay" Iain agreed before taking a good look at Rita, "when did you last get some sleep?"

Rita shrugged, "before Mark came back."

"Come on" Iain stood with Rita in his arms, before putting Rita down, "you go upstairs and get changed into something comfortable, I'll make us a fresh brew and something to eat, and you can get some rest, you don't have to worry about anything anymore." Rita nodded but didn't move, "you okay?"

She nodded, looking at Iain for a moment before telling him, "I can't imagine you changing a dirty nappy."

Iain laughed, "I'm sure a dirty nappy is nothing compared to some of the things I've seen on shouts."

Rita smiled for the first time in what felt like forever, "we'll be okay won't we? I mean if we have the baby?"

Iain shrugged, "we'll blunder along, neither of us exactly sure what we're doing, we'll make mistakes and there'll probably be times when we bite each other's heads off because we haven't slept in weeks but then I'll come home from work and you'll be cuddled up reading the baby a bedtime story or you'll come back from work and I'll be asleep on the sofa with the baby and we'll smile and realise it's all been worth it. Then, in a few year's time we'll probably do it all over again. It won't be easy but I think, as long as we've got each other, we'll manage."

"You'd want more children with me?"

Iain nodded and took Rita in his arms again, "only if it's what you want."

"How many?" She asked, her head once again falling to his chest, listening to the reassuring beat of his heart.

"I don't know, 2, 3, enough for a 5-a-side team?"

"No" Rita laughed, "2 or 3 is fine, any more and you'll have to find a way to have them yourself."

"Deal" Iain chuckled before kissing Rita's head again, "now you go and get comfy upstairs, let me wait on you hand and foot."

Rita nodded and stood on her tiptoes to briefly peck Iain's lips, she'd been so stupid, she should have known Iain wouldn't hurt her, she should have been honest with him from the beginning, "I love you" she whispered.

Iain smiled and gently stroked Rita's cheek with his thumb, he'd let her take the lead when it came to physical contact, he never wanted her to feel the way Mark made her feel, "I love you too" he said sincerely as he gently laid his hand on her flat stomach, watching a small smile spread across her face as added, "both of you."


End file.
